Toronto Raptors Accept Blame for Game 1 Shot Clock Malfunction

Initially, ESPN‘s technicians were blamed for the shot clocks going kaput with six minutes left in the third quarter of the series opener between the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets. The Raptors investigated and admitted that they were at fault for the fiasco. Per the Toronto Star:

The first explanation from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment said a “signal path error” caused the outage.

But on Sunday, the blame shifted to ESPN, the American network that was broadcasting the game, ostensibly because one of their employees shifted one electrical outlet to another in hopes of solving an internal problem that supposedly fried the connection.

That early speculation was based on where ESPN was set up during the game, a Raptors official said. But on review, it wasn’t the network’s fault after all.

On Monday, Raptors officials said a further internal probe into the failure led them to admit the problem was with the arena and its infrastructure rather than ESPN.

“We appreciate the public correction and acknowledgement that we did not cause the problem and remain focused on documenting the daily excitement of the NBA Playoffs,” said Josh Krulewitz, vice-president of communications for ESPN.

The main problem wasn’t the clock failing, but rather that the backup was running on a similar power source, team officials said. That problem has been solved and if there is another power interruption, a backup plan is in place to assure the clocks work.

Game 2 in the series is Tuesday night, it will be shown in the United States on NBA TV and ESPN2 will have Friday’s Game 3 from Brooklyn.